Hydrogen Fuel Cells for Electric Cars and Trucks

Speaker

Tim Lipman- Co-Director, Transportation Sustainability Research Center, UC Berkeley

Event Overview

Hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) have been under development for over 20 years and are now finally entering the market in the U.S., Europe, Japan, Korea, and other countries. These vehicles offer the advantages of electric drive and zero tailpipe emissions, along with rapid refueling in 4-5 minutes that is similar to conventional gasoline and diesel vehicles. However, historically they have been hindered by high manufacturing costs and lack of a hydrogen-fueling infrastructure. This talk examined the current status of hydrogen FCEV commercialization and included discussion of: 1) fuel cell applications for transportation; 2) system manufacturing cost trends; 3) the cost and availability of hydrogen refueling infrastructure, 4) the environmental impacts of hydrogen production; 5) lessons learned from building and operating a 700-bar (10,000 psi) hydrogen refueling station at the Berkeley Global Campus in Richmond; and 6) results from a multi-year research program at TSRC where hundreds of participants have now driven FCEVs by Toyota, Hyundai, and Daimler in real-world conditions in a research study environment.

More information and a recording of the seminar can be found here.